Chocolove Chocolate Bar Review

I love chocolate candy. Well truthfully I love all candy, but chocolate candy has a special place in my heart and Chocolove’s specialty chocolate bars are now at the very center. What makes these bars so special? First, on the inside of the wrapper of every Chocolove bar is a love poem. Yes, I am telling the truth, someone finally figured out how to combine two of the most romantic items together and created a love poem wrapped chocolate bar. Second, the variety of flavors is spectacular. Ranging from crystallized ginger in dark chocolate to toffee and hazelnuts in milk chocolate, Chocolove offers a flavor combination suitable for any occasion and any type of chocolate eater. Why no one has ever combined poetry and delicious chocolate into one product before is beyond me but it is the reason I adore these chocolate bars.

Chocolove comes in a variety of flavors each with a uniquely colored package that resembles the outward appearance of an envelope, stamp included (check out the picture below). As I rave about above, this charming outward packaging is just the beginning. Inside the package are beautiful love poems delicately printed in a type that looks almost handwritten making it feel as if I have just received a romantic love letter with a little extra sweetness included. When the packaging is removed 18 squares of chocolate are revealed. These squares are shaped like little pillows and break apart with a firm snap in an almost perfect break. Tonight’s flavor, the Orange Peel in Dark Chocolate, and I can immediately tell the Belgium chocolate is high quality because my first bite is smooth, rich and non-waxy. Before tasting it I was skeptical about choosing the Orange Peel flavor because the ingrained memory of waxy chocolate “oranges” from my childhood Christmases but I was pleasantly surprised. This orange peel is natural tasting (because it is actual freeze dried orange peel) and has a great slightly crispy texture that paired well with the smooth chocolate. In fact, as chocolate goes, it is quite addicting. I couldn’t stop at one square and so I broke off two more, wrapped my romantic chocolate package back up, and stashed it in my cupboard for later.

Chocolove has combined my love for different but delicious flavors, my love for romance and my love for chocolate candy into one product so the only thing stopping me from buying one of each flavor to try them all is their premium price of nearly $4 a bar. I’ll start dropping hints for next Valentines Day now and hopefully I can make the one stashed in my cupboard last for more than tonight.

*Unfortunately Chocolove's website is under some sort of revamp so there is hardly any information about the company (or their products) on it currently but I would check back soon if you are interested in learning more!

Almost Guilt-Free Brownies

This evening I returned from my beginning ballet class with a craving for chocolate. Unfortunately the only chocolate I had in my apartment wasn't enough to satisfy this craving and so I had to find something else! After a long search through recipes and I decided to attempt a healthy version of a brownie with the hope that because it has chocolate in it, even if I try to make it healthy, it can't turn out to be awful.


The end result was a surprisingly delicious, low-fat, whole wheat, egg-free brownie. The texture was a soft and gooey interior with a slightly elastic version of the normal brownie edge (I think this comes from the lack of fat). The flavor was quite rich but you could tell I used plain yogurt (next time I plan on using vanilla and reducing the sugar) and with the addition of chocolate chips, every bite was complemented with bits of melting chocolate. Yum!

Almost Guilt-Free Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C whole wheat flour
• 7 Tbs unsweetened coco powder
• 1 C white sugar (use a mixture of brown and white for a slightly deeper flavor)
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 C Non-fat Vanilla(reduce sugar in recipe) or Plain Yogurt
  
• 1t Vanilla
• 2 Eggs (for an egg-free recipe, substitute 2 Tbs of flax seed mixed with 6 Tbs of water. No saturated fat this way!)
• 1/3 C Chocolate chips (optional but strongly recommended)
• Feel free to add chopped nuts also
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8 inch pan for thick brownies or an 11x7 for a thinner end result.
2. In one bowl, thoroughly mix together flour, coco powder, salt and sugar (and chocolate chips if using). In another bowl mix yogurt, vanilla, and eggs together.
3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until completely mixed. Pour into the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.

An Introduction

Everyone knows the story. You go to college, a young, inspired, newly independent adult, with dreams of living on your own and the freedom it provides. And then you realize not living with mom and dad means no automatic dinner on the table, no nagging about cleaning your room, no whining to turn off the TV and go outside. The lack of annoying pestering is refreshing but the need to self motivate is nearly impossible.

I am right smack dab in the middle of finding that motivation. I have trouble not only keeping my apartment clean and getting my lazy self to the gym but even I, a self proclaimed food addict, am having trouble getting up enough energy and motivation to utilize the opportunity my very own kitchen provides me. I, for the first time, am eating cereal for dinner instead of making something that at my parents house there is no doubt I would be excited to make. And so, I present to you a new food blog dedicated to fast, healthy, mostly cheap, delicious food to help keep myself and hopefully anyone else who needs the extra push to stay cooking in college motivated and excited. Living on your own is hard. Really hard. But who says it can't be delicious?